Featured Acquisition: Hung Liu

Painter/printmaker
Hung Liu explains: "My prints are
metaphors for memory and history." The "Maiden" is
one in a three-part series of works using
anonymous historical photographs as the
basis for imagined stories of women. The
others include "The Bride"and "The
Martyr."

Born in Changchun, China,
Hung Liu grew up during the social disruption
of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In
1968, she was sent to the countryside
for proletarian "re-education".
For the next four years, she worked in
rice and wheat fields as an agricultural
laborer, also photographing and drawing
portraits of local farmers and their families.
Liu went on to study and teach at the
Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing,
and later received permission to attend
the University of California, San Diego,
where she earned an M.F.A. in 1986. She
is currently a professor of art at Mills
College in Oakland, California.